FAMILY :: COMPOSITAE
$100
PERICÓN, YAUHTLI, MEXICAN TARRAGON: An anise flavored, tender, evergreen shrub (in mild climates) used culinarily and in smoking mixtures. Likes warm, well drained soil and prefers full sun (at least 6 hours a day) but will tolerate part sun. Has small yellow flowers and 2″ long narrow green leaves. Long flowering season. Good tea.
It is used in an inebriating smoking mixture called ye-tumutsáli with Nicotiana rustica (wild tobacco) by the Huichol of Mexico.
It has also been shown to have antidepressant-like activity in rats. Interviews of healers and merchants from ten local regions of Morelos State showed that they recommended T. lucida as infusion and as tincture for several culture-bound syndromes associated with the CNS. Anxiolytic and sedative-like activities of polar extracts were corroborated in experimental models.
This is a complicated plant, chemical-wise, and is known to have many traditional medical uses as well as showing, in modern medicine, promise in psychoactive uses.
“On the night of September 28, crosses of “pericon flower” are placed as protection against the devil, which, according to Catholic belief, is loose on the 29th (Day of Saint Michael Archangel).
According to popular belief, in the early morning of September 29, the gates of hell are left without guards, because San Miguel, who is its guardian, is given a day of restlessness by his saint. So the devil can make his own. According to tradition, on the night of September 28, a peacock flower cross must be placed on the doors of houses to protect us from the devil or prevent him from entering and doing evil.
The Flower of Yauhtli is the name in nahuatl, meaning fog or darkness of this flower that abounds in the Warrior State, today we know it as “Pericon”, name derived from European “hypericon” or herb of San Juan by the great resemblance of the one with the other.
The “Crosses de Pericon” is a deeply rooted belief in different indigenous communities nahua of the municipalities among them José Joaquin de Herrera, Ztilala, Ahuacotzingo, Quechultenango, Chilapa, Tixtla, among others including the municipalities of T enancingo and sta ana edo mex.”
MORE INFORMATION / REFERENCES
- Antifungal and antibacterial activities of Mexican tarragon (Tagetes lucida)
- Tagetes lucida Cav.: Ethnobotany, phytochemistry and pharmacology of its tranquilizing properties
#tageteslucida #flordepericón #Mexicantarragon
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